The SlipSlider - a Revolutionary Blues Harp.

A space for players interested in my specialist harmonicas, alternate tunings, instructional material, recordings etc to ask questions and share information, experiences, videos etc.
Lizzy
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Re: The SlipSlider - a Revolutionary Blues Harp. It's Weird, but it Works!

Post by Lizzy » Fri Apr 06, 2018 7:55 am

Brendan...is your plan to do slipslider to fit both Seydel session and Seydel classic? Im asking because the main part of my harmonica arsenal is session steel.

Sachlaw
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Re: The SlipSlider - a Revolutionary Blues Harp. It's Weird, but it Works!

Post by Sachlaw » Fri Apr 06, 2018 1:56 pm

I am glad you asked that question Lizzy. I am slowly converting all my diatonic to PB tuned Session Steels and the 1847s myself.

Paris
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Re: The SlipSlider - a Revolutionary Blues Harp. It's Weird, but it Works!

Post by Paris » Sun Apr 08, 2018 4:51 pm

That's exactly what I'm currently doing with my diatonics Sachlaw. Love PB tuning and love steel reeds!
Brendan's tunings have gotten me pretty much off richter tuning and i didn't think i would ever use it again. BUT the Slip-Slider looks awesome! This might be the thing that makes richter tuning relevant again for me. Ordering now.

Thanks for the innovation Brendan, very exciting!

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Brendan
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Re: The SlipSlider - a Revolutionary Blues Harp. It's Weird, but it Works!

Post by Brendan » Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:55 pm

Seydel is more tricky to design a SlipSlider for due to the limited comb area on the ends, but I'll have a go.

Paris: You're right, the SlipSlider does make Richter more attractive by overcoming it's main disadvantage: lack of bends. However the movement of the drawplate is necessarily in two directions because of the breath flip in Richter at hole 7: right-shift for the extra low blow bends, left shift for the high draw bends.

With harps that have a regular breath tuning, like PowerDraw and PowerBender, only the right shift is necessary. This makes the SlipSlider easier to use. It benefits PowerDraw the most, but is also good on PowerBender. It makes both tunings fully chromatic with bends alone. I'll do a demo video on these tunings with the SlipSlider shortly.

Lizzy
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Re: The SlipSlider - a Revolutionary Blues Harp. It's Weird, but it Works!

Post by Lizzy » Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:43 am

It would be great if you can design to session steel. However if it dont work im open to Seydel 1847 which is more similar to Hohner. But it wold take a while (money) to shift my arsenal of session steel to 1847.

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Brendan
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Re: The SlipSlider - a Revolutionary Blues Harp. It's Weird, but it Works!

Post by Brendan » Wed Apr 11, 2018 3:06 am

Here's a how-to video for people who want to make up their own SlipSlider harp from the finished parts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LkFRwmfHHs

I will get back to looking at Suzuki, Seydel and Easttop versions soon :-)

Roverharp
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Re: The SlipSlider - a Revolutionary Blues Harp. It's Weird, but it Works!

Post by Roverharp » Fri Apr 13, 2018 11:01 pm

I haven't ordered yet but if I understand the design correctly here's a few other tidbits about the SlipSlider. Assuming a 'C' harp:

1) The two high draw bends are actually executed one hole down from where the bent note usually resides. So, the shift left is made and the A6 can be bent down to G#6 and this is done in Hole 9, not Hole 10 where the A6 is found in normal play. Not necessarily a bad thing; just a curiosity. I suspect it will make some phrases a little slower and some a little quicker so call it even.

2) Brendan didn't mention it in the demo but i believe you can get a 1/4 tone bend between the high F and high E when shifted. If you happen to employ a Melody Maker tuning you'd get the benefit of a half-step bend from F# to F natural.

3) Extra overblows have been mentioned but the Hole 10 overdraw might receive some extra attention. With the left shift the high C reed in Hole 10 is isolated with no other reeds in the air stream. Half the battle of the overdraw (choking the closing reed) has been eliminated. You could probably hit the overdraw and maybe bend it up.

4) Building around a Richter setup means that one hole will allow two new bends. Brendan logically employed it at Hole 7 where the C note gets paired alternately with the Draw A and Draw D. I might have preferred to use Hole 6 as the 'damper' hole. This would retain the blow bend from G down to F# but would also allow for bending the mid octave 'B' down to 'Ab"; exactly the same as first octave. It's a judgement call but for cross harp it might be more valuable to have a bendy third scale degree instead of the fourth.

In any case this harp remains a very clever design that should be lots of fun to experiment with.

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Brendan
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Re: The SlipSlider - a Revolutionary Blues Harp. It's Weird, but it Works!

Post by Brendan » Sat Apr 14, 2018 8:10 am

Thanks for your astute observations Roverharp.

Yes, the top draw reeds move a hole to the left when in the draw-bend shift position, but actually I find that great! The reason is that your A and D reeds are adjacent on hole 6 and 7 respectively. This allows for some very cool licks, which I'll demonstrate in an upcoming video.

The improved overbend on hole 10 with the left-shift hadn't crossed my mind, but it's another bonus - that's the thing with this harp, it keeps on giving new abilities! The obverse, the isolated blow 1 with the right-shift, is something I've enjoyed. It makes the hole 1 blow note much stronger and capable of vibrato.

Yes, the choice between draw-bend 7 or blow-bend 7... I think blow-bend is better on balance, because you can get a half-bend on the C blow to get the B, and then bend down - so you have it on the blow with some practice. It would be nice to have both blow and draw bend there, but I couldn't think of a way to do that yet.

Roverharp
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Re: The SlipSlider - a Revolutionary Blues Harp. It's Weird, but it Works!

Post by Roverharp » Sat Apr 14, 2018 3:17 pm

Hmm, yes those adjacent A and D notes could be pretty cool.

Brendan, could you comment on the air tightness? It's the one thing i'd be most worried about. Well placed, appropriate strength magnets might keep things snug at the ends but with nothing in the middle to pull the Draw plate how does the harp manage to perform so well? (At least according to your initial video).

P.S. How are things progressing with the other item that was originally slated for release with the Slippery One? And what of the Unibender? Sorry to bug you but with all your offerings coming fast and furious I'll want to prioritize which instrument to focus on. ;)

Lizzy
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Re: The SlipSlider - a Revolutionary Blues Harp. It's Weird, but it Works!

Post by Lizzy » Sun Apr 15, 2018 11:34 am

I am not worried about the seal but it would be interesting to se how much wear the teflon can take before it loses its smoothness. No worries about it but there would be a big difference between 1000/10000 strokes. :D

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